Anti same-sex marriage posters in Australia call gay people ‘child abusers’ and ‘terrorists’
The huge marriage equality debate currently happening in Australia has seen an influx of homophobic hate speech from the ‘No’ campaigners.
An anonymous letter posted in Sydney raged against “abnormal same-sex marriage” and called gay people “cutting off genitals terrorists”
It made absurd claims, including that the equalisation of marriage would lead to homosexual “brainwashing” of children in schools, and forced gender transitioning.
Anon anti same-sex marriage note dropped in letterbox in the shire. No attribution. Hateful & false. “Cutting-off genitals terrorists” pic.twitter.com/tPWR0xMcFT
— Jayne Azzopardi (@JayneAzzo) September 12, 2017
Earlier in the campaign, a photo of a poster in suburban Sydney went viral, which preached “Stop the F*gs,” showing a drawing of a child cowering from rainbow-striped belts.
It claimed that 92% of children raised by gay parents are abused, and 51% have depression.
The statistics came from a study that has been widely discredited as inaccurate and homophobic.
Spotted in Melbourne – Heffernan Lane. How is this for a unity moment? @TurnbullMalcolm @cityofmelbourne @AdamBandt @VicGovAu @abcnews pic.twitter.com/syL7vqRJLK
— Dan Leach-McGill (@DanLMcG) August 19, 2017
Another poster found in Brisbane was posted on Reddit, with the slogan “A vote for gay marriage is a vote for child abuse.”
The Australian National Mental Health Commission has raised concerns that the debate could have extremely harmful effects on the LGBT community, increasing discrimination and negatively impacting their mental health.
To which senior politician Matthew Canavan said they should “grow a spine and grow up!”
Other flyers being circulated in Sydney directly target the Australian Labor Party, saying that a vote for them will lead to children becoming gay, being taught masturbation in school and having their “genders muddled.”
Leaflets were unknowingly distributed by the Australian postal service in Melbourne and Victoria which called LGBT pride “perverted” and compared it to Nazism.
Related: Australian school infuriates parents with lesson ‘teaching’ kids gay marriage is bad
George Forgan-Smith, a gay doctor in Melbourne was attacked as he was installing marriage-equality street art.
He was subjected to homophobic abuse by the attacker, who then started to destroy the art and broke Forgan-Smith’s phone.
As a doctor specialising in gay men’s health, Forgan-Smith told Junkee he’s definitely aware of a rise in anti-LGBT hate crime in Australia, hearing reports of people experiencing verbal and physical assault in public.
With months to go until the postal vote is over, and the marriage debate set to go on long after that, there’s fear that the homophobic climate may continue to get worse.
